As I showed clearly for years now, logically speaking, Japan has more reasons to be united with China in both military and economic matters. It was only a matter of time, when this EU-type union would come to exist. Well, as I predicted for quite a while, Japan SECRETLY made many moves towards this union while putting up a display of military power for the US to fool us into thinking, they were great allies and not someone ready to divorce us and marry someone else.

During a visit to Beijing by Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda, the two governments said in a surprise announcement Sunday they will encourage use of their own currencies in bilateral trade, which now is conducted mostly in U.S. dollars. They also agreed to support the sale of bonds denominated in China’s yuan by Japanese companies in Tokyo and foreign markets and by the state-owned Japan Bank of International Cooperation in mainland China’s markets, which are closed to most foreign investors.

There is a parade of cartoons I have drawn in the past showing very clearly the dynamics of all of this. The US has basically been reduced to nearly nothing in industrial terms. Our credit has been used up, buying Japanese cars and electronics. We then used up the rest of our credit buying Chinese goods. Now, we have little future buying power as US wages fall to Asian levels. Propping up the US dollar is less and less profitable for Asian exporters.

As I explained a year ago, China now is Japan’s #1 trade partner. The US has been dethroned. This leads, INEVITABLY, to many severe shifts in trade directions, the relative power of empires and other things that will see the US become a #2 power in the world, not the Ruler of the Seven Seas. As I have explained over and over again, when we destroyed our own sovereign merchant marine, we doomed ourselves to future failure.

We imagined if we spent trillions on having an immense military navy, the loss of the merchant marine wouldn’t matter. This was utterly childish and anyone reading history could see the end results, yet all of our ‘historians’ like the fraud, Gingrich, hired by our government to advise them proved to be a madras of maniacs, not historians looking coldly at that bloody bitch, History.

I literally have almost 100 cartoons on this topic! The warnings I have issued over the years go way back to when the Chinese hatched their 50 Year Plan at my house in New Jersey. They did this after learning some basic history about shipping, military development and the rise and fall of great empires. They have to be the only people in power who ever listened to me, alas. They learned their lessons well.

The present fall in world trade is due entirely to China raising the bank rate reserve ratios and limiting foreign investment in China. This squeezed Japan mercilessly and this was deliberate since Japan was two timing China, talking trade when in Beijing and then talking war when in DC. The Japanese always joined US attacks on China’s huge FOREX holdings while holding nearly just enough to keep the dollar strong against the yen so they could ravage our domestic markets.

China warned Japan to stop doing this. Japan had to come clean about their own FOREX holdings. Back in the 1980’s, I warned the US government that Japan would use their FOREX holdings to keep the yen artificially weak and yet, they were allowed to do this to ‘stop the depression’ in Japan. Except the ZIRP interest rates pleased exporters there so they merrily kept this depression going. It suppressed wages and made taxes low and encouraged exports! A win/win for them and a death sentence for the Japanese people.

The Japanese rulers see their doom already: they will be eliminated by the Chinese via their dire baby dearth. They have fewer and fewer babies and the working class is now so poor, they can’t afford to have even one child. Marriage in Japan is in full collapse. They have to move swiftly to save themselves from simple annihilation! This is a most pressing issue for them. By forming an imperial alliance with China, they might have a chance of saving themselves as a people. They need draconian measures and thus, are praying that the Dragon of China will save them.

There is no turning back this particular wheel of history: it will grind forwards no matter what. The US had its chance to dominate Asia and blew it with the Vietnam War. Since then, we have been treading water. We let Japan’s shipping industry destroy our own industry so that NO American ships EVER went to Japanese harbors while a huge flotilla of Japanese merchant ships came pouring into all our ports, for example.

This was a hostile act but the US treated this as an ally helping us, not destroying us. This goes ditto for Europe which the US spends a fortune protecting. And Israel: ditto. After Demanding Patriot Missiles as Protection from Iran, Israel Sells Secret US Technology to China | Get Smart News is just one recent example of a traitor trade partner which depends on US money for their military power, stiffing us by making secret deals with China. China can buy whatever it wants since it has money! Lots of money in all currencies. Its FOREX holdings are immense and not in dollars but in many currencies and this was deliberate, too.

US Report: Attack on Pakistani Military Bases ‘Justified’ and ‘Appropriate’ — News from Antiwar.com is also how our empire has become tone deaf and our State Department brain dead. The State Department is run out of Tel Aviv and thus, ignores anything to do with maintaining US power. The loss of power in Pakistan was obvious to see and has obvious consequences. Pakistan is now a Chinese ally. The US attacked Pakistan, killed soldiers there and then blames the victim for this crime, a la Israel’s fake investigations of its war crimes.

Then we have this insane headline: Obama denies being ‘Spock-like’ | The Raw Story. Argh. The only character I liked on Star Trek was Spock. Geeks adore Spock. The general public dislikes him because he thinks. That is scary. We love Rambo because he is stupid and thought he won the Vietnam War. The US public likes to think that the skinny gooks of Vietnam could be beaten up by a beefy weight lifting lunatic screaming insanely as he plunges into the jungles. How bizarre is this? Talk about insane. Too bad, we are not led by Mr. Spock. He would figure out how the Chinese trade/Japanese trade thing operates! He would clean up Wall Street! Rats.

50 responses to “As I Predicted Two Years Ago, China And Japan Form Powerful Currency Union”

Japan will need someone with actual wealth in vast amounts to repair their Fukushima disaster. The USA does not have the wealth. China does.
Countries do not have friends, countries have interests. Japan has calculated that their interest lies with China for a while. Nothing is etched in stone.

More like the Tribble salesman. The print monkey just grinding the tribbles out nonstop. Does it not understand that we are running hundreds of billions of tribbles in deficit, and no one thinks the tribbles are cute anymore?

ΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩ

ELAINE: Many years ago, Gene Roddenberry gave my little daughter one of the tribble props as a toy to amuse her at a SF convention. We kept it for many years but it was destroyed by the pets we have who liked to toss it around and chew on it. You see, the original tribbles tasted really good to dogs and cats.

It was actually quite cute. Another friend of mine made Evil Tribbles which had teeth and two clawed arms. I used this in amusing ways to scare people. It was quite effective.

Elaine: at what point in this scenario does the United States ruling class have NO choice but to deeply slash their military spending a la the UK? As an aside, do you think the warmongers in the Pentagon actually think they can “win” in any military confrontation with China? At what point will this situation become so obvious no amount of corporate owned media spin will be able cover it up?

That point will be reached on a Wednesday, one week after Ron Paul takes office at approx. 9:35 est. He will announce on the new de-monopolized media that 50% of all military hardware will be distributed around the US to local militias and citizen vigilante groups.
No one can guess timing of events in the future, not even our Elaine. Due to the massive flocks of butterflies with wings as big as black swans fluttering overhead causing foreseen and unforeseen chaotic social/planetary/economic disturbances in disparate places around the globe – no one, not even someone with an updated Mayan calender can predict when a trend or a series of events will culminate in a paradigm change.
Just imagine if we could.

My question about the future is a little different. Although I understand the games that China, Japan, Germany, Russia, and others are playing (thanks to Elaine!), the fact remains that the world is finite, and any country that bases its economic future on “growth” will be sadly disappointed, if not totally destroyed from within by raging mobs of people who were promised a life of ease and comfort — if they would just work themselves to death right now.

We have depleted nearly everything on planet earth, and what little is left will not be distributed evenly, so… what further point is there to these mindless imperial games? I know that those playing them at the top believe in them with all their mind and soul, but for the rest of us, it still amounts to a dead end game. There are not enough resources left on the planet to fulfill all the desires of the main players. Forget about the masses, who will receive nothing, and may even end up as the main survivors of this awful mess — just because they know how to make do with less.

Why would China want Japan? Who wants a nuclear hell-hole? How does China expect to export goods over oceans when there is no fuel for ships? Does it have a plan to revert to a former style of civilization that did not require trade outside of mainland China? Has it told its people that they will walk in the future and not “ride”? If not, then it will be wracked by the same problems we face, only they will have fewer natural resources, but more energy (human labor).

When all major economies are predicated on infinite growth, then the awful, dreaded “zero” appears on the horizon. On this finite planet, zero growth is coming to everyone.

I agree about the Spock character, but then I am a geek. Sadly, Star Trek wasn’t consistent in advocating rationalism. Vulcans were barely repressed emotional beasts, Romulans were the ultimate Machiavellians and Data wanted to be human. Where oh where is uncorruptable machine intelligence when you need it? Oh right… Nomad… M5… Vger…

***

From the Weekly Standard (owned Phil Anschutz), a horrifying article about organ harvesting from still living “executed” prisoners, in China, from eye witnesses:

“Nijat finally understood. The anticoagulant. The expensive “execution meals” for the regiment following a trip to the killing ground. The plainclothes agents in the cells who persuaded the prisoners to sign statements donating their organs to the state. And now the medical director was confirming it all: Those statements were real. They just didn’t take account of the fact that the prisoners would still be alive when they were cut up.”

“By my estimate up to three million Falun Gong practitioners would pass through the Chinese corrections system. Approximately 65,000 would be harvested, hearts still beating, before the 2008 Olympics. An unspecified, significantly smaller, number of House Christians and Tibetans likely met the same fate.”

All the inorganics that ever were here are still here. ( with the miniscule exception of the few tons of metals that have been sent out of earth orbit.)
The forms may be different gold jewelry instead of gold ore, steel beams instead of rust in the ground, but the quantity is the same. That they are not distributed geographically equally is true … and irrelevant. The market will set the value in the future as it has in the past. Stuff will recycle in the future as it does today and did in the past.
The organics have undergone profound physical change. The burned oil will not be recycled as fuel. The burned trees and burned coal will likewise remain unrecycleable. The Chinese will use cheaper energy and develop less efficient solar energy and wind energy for the inevitable future where organics are no longer cost effective as fuels given their other higher value uses and demands ( fertilizers and insecticides and herbicides and plastics).
I for one expect the return of the sail powered merchant vessel. The fabulous tea races of the mid 19th century will return in the 21 or 22.
0 growth — no — negative growth for the have nots, the anti intellectual, the parasites is probably coming. Those that have and work will still have and grow. And the more efficient they are in the use of the organics and inorganics the more they will have.

“Stuff will recycle in the future as it does today and did in the past.”

Most things cannot be recycled without the application of energy, which wil be far too expensive to use for such activities, as you yourself just pointed out. Medical plastic will take priority over recycling plastic bags and other plastic items, and the small amounts of metals on computer circuit boards and household appliances cannot be recycled efficiently even now, so they are disposed of in hazardous waste landfills. The fact that something is still here does not mean it can be used again by us. There is a lot of stuff near Fukishima that we will never be able to use again, for just one example.

Anything that does not recycle today, will not recycle in the future.

“The market will set the value in the future as it has in the past.”

There is no such thing, and never has been, a free market anywhere in the world. I have said this before. All markets are controlled by those who own them, and all markets are owned by someone. There is no such thing as a “free market”, unless you count two Indians trading furs out in the forest without the knowledge of the local chieftown or warlord. Such markets, while technically free, cannot work on a large scale, as they will be bought and controlled by someone — by force, if necessary.

Market value will be set by human beings without regard to any kind of economic doctrine, regardless of what it claims must happen.

“I for one expect the return of the sail powered merchant vessel.”

As I pointed out on Dmitry Orlov’s blog, most forests will be clearcut to build massive warships designed to control trade routes, leaving very little wood left for other uses. He agreed with me on this point, and admits that most normal sailing craft will have to be made out of scavaged materials. This is what happened to the forests of Ireland, Scotland, and England. They were clearcut to build England’s massive fleet of sailing ships. They never recovered, and are now desolate or used for raising sheep.

I believe 90404 is drunk, so I will not discuss his last post, which does not make any sense at all.

The Japanese government announced yesterday that they will be entering the arms industry and will be exporting weapons soon.

I think this is a pretext to rearm themselves as they foresee the US forces retreating from Asia in the near future…well good luck to those stupid Asian countries that sided openly with the US… those who live next to the dragon’s cave should never ever piss the dragon…but then who actually pay attention to the lessons of history…

The loss of trees in England, etc. was not a problem for English ships which used Norway’s trees and trees from Eastern Europe back then. Then, the New England trees became the basis for global ship building and guess what?

The New England states became world traders! Big time! To the great irritation of England and it is why we had a revolution.

The US can very easily become the leader in ship building in the future. But that is in the far future when there is no United States and the Maritime/oak tree states from New Jersey to New Foundland become a global trade power again.

And yes, the world’s population in 2100 will be smaller than today. A new religion will have to arise that praises care in family building and enforces birth control a la China today. This is inevitable unless we have a future of Dark Age population control which is of course, disease, starvation, war and chaos.

What you say is probably true, but that still does not change the fact that England, Ireland, and Scotland were denuded of trees before England had to start buying trees from other countries. When you must buy trees to build your ships, you start to hemmorage money, and must find a way to make up for it by exploiting someone else, but that is neither here nor there.

What will New England produce for the world in the future other than wood? Just curious. I know they have water mills, so they have some energy for industry on a small scale.

I also happen to know that the first warships made by the US were carved out of huge “live oaks” from Georgia. These magnificent, ancient trees were hewed down to build the ironclads that the British could not easily sink.

I have yet to see any kind of industrial minded human learn to wait a few generations for trees and other things to grow back or repopulate, so my outlook for an industrial future for America is grim. I foresee a moonscape as every available resource is used up as quickly as possible in order to keep an “edge” over the competition.

It would be nice if true craftsmanship returned to America, but that would entail little to no profits, just pride in one’s workmanship. Any new religion in the future will need to dispense entirely with the idea of profit if it is to last more than one generation.

I guess what I am saying is that capitalism and true religion are not compatible. Native Americans, sub-Saharan Africans, and some others were proof of that. Teach people to forget about making a profit and they might turn their minds to seeking something more noble. Where people help each other, but make no profit, you find less jealousy, less envy, less resentment.

EMS said “A new religion will have to arise that praises care in family building and enforces birth control a la China today. This is inevitable unless we have a future of Dark Age population control which is of course, disease, starvation, war and chaos.”

“Native Americans, sub-Saharan Africans, and some others were proof of that. Teach people to forget about making a profit and they might turn their minds to seeking something more noble. Where people help each other, but make no profit, you find less jealousy, less envy, less resentment.”

I don’t think you fully understand Native American culture. It was incredibly violent. Just as violent as any other society on earth. My own people in Alaska used patrol the borders of their lands religiously. They killed anyone on sight who was not a relative or friend of a relative. The only way the Russians were able to infiltrate the Alaskan interior was by marriage (forced or consensual).

Profit was very important to Native American culture but just not in the same way as we think of it now. The chinese beads that the Russians sold to Alaskan natives were found as far as South America which indicates an extensive trading network. And I’m sure those little glass beads were weighted very valuably in terms of grain, livestock or textiles.

There was never a garden of eden of any sort on earth that did not include commerce or social inequity that it brings.

I never said there was a Garden of Eden anywhere. I just said that in comparison to European industrial culture, other societies had less of certain social problems. Why else would the first explorers refer to the natives as “child-like” and perfect for enslavement?

I don’t think you fully understand European and Middle Eastern cultures, and the incredible amounts of violence propagated by them at home and abroad. It is only natural to defend one’s borders, hunting grounds, and tribal territory. If this is violence, then no one has the right to complain about illegal immigrants or outright invasions. You will notice I did not say “less violent”, although that would be true in comparison to Jewish cultures, which are extremely violent.

I never said trade was not important to Native Americans or their culture, but as you admit yourself, their idea of profit was not the same as European ideas of profit, which often involved massive fraud and the enslaving of millions to make money any way they could. I know of no attempts by Native Americans to become multi-millionaires at the expense of their entire tribe before the arrival of Europeans and their notion of “profit”, and their refusal to assimilate to such madness is why there are so few Native Americans left today.

No society is perfect, and I never said so, but I would rather live among those who consent to live by rules, customs, taboos, whatever, that reasonable apply to all rather than the western world’s view that only serfs and peasants must follow laws.

The reason why Native American culture was stopped dead in its tracks in the formation of unified trade across North/South America was due to disease. Disease that was carried over the ocean by explorers swept through North and South.

As far as profiting at the expense of others, what do you think the marriages in Alaska were for? True Love? They were made in order to increase profit at the expense of other tribes and families. Whoever controlled the glass bead trading, controlled the profit from it.

The South American tribes had huge and advanced cultures that were similar to Europe. They were also incredibly violent and believed in human sacrifice. That came back to bite them in the backside when the newcomers arrived. Smaller tribes jumped at the chance to sell out the Indian empires.

As far as child like, that is not the case. The explorers only had that impression because they were not familiar with Native American cultural cues. Both sides misread one another.

I like to acknowledge the reality on human nature. And the facts are that no society on earth has been better than another. And the fetishizing of Native cultures is the worst development in recent years.

“They have to be the only people in power who ever listened to me, alas. They learned their lessons well.”

That’s simple Elaine. Because the Chinese rulers are Chinese. Our rulers are not American, or Christian, or even European to a large degree and therefore care only about their ME tribe in Asia and see money as the ultimate weapon to gain more power. They have no other value beyond acquiring more power for themselves and their despicable tribe. It was our own leaders who allowed the Chinese to grow into such a large economic and military threat to America.

“Profit” is an oversimplification of the problem. It’s about banking, and debt, and property. Europeans did refine the arts of coercing people almost invisibly, by getting rid of alternative ways to survive.

“Nobody is forcing you to become a wage slave. You can do whatever you want. Sorry though, all the land is either privately owned or government owned, so you’ll need money if you want to live anywhere. You can either pay rent, or go to a bank and get a mortgage.”

The Europeans who settled the new world were often very conscious of how their system enabled much stricter control of people than the native cultures they were confronting. The jesuit missionaries wrote detailed accounts of their efforts to make the natives settle down and live in one place, and understand that land should be privately owned and divided up into lots. It was understood that people couldn’t easily be controled unless they could be dtied down to one bit of land and made to think of all the other bits as belonging to othes.

I wonder if she was even in on the decision to report the story as Paul storming out of the interview. I felt for her a bit, at the end of it, when she asks him if he understands that it’s her job to ask those questions. She basically admits that she was being unreasonable — which she shouldn’t if she knew it was going to be spun as him being unreasonable. I heard it as her saying “You know I’m just a slave, right?”

“The jesuit missionaries wrote detailed accounts of their efforts to make the natives settle down and live in one place, and understand that land should be privately owned and divided up into lots.”

The Jesuits were the cleanup crew that came after the South American Empires were destroyed. They were dealing with the serfs that experienced newfound freedom after the larger tribes were destroyed. This dynamic was repeated anywhere the newcomers landed and made contact. Its not realistic to think the Europeans were not being used as much as they were doing the using.

It has been thought that Native Americans were in the process of forming societies along the lines of Europe but the process was slow because the population never hit critical mass. Perhaps because the Native American beliefs were not obsessed with birthing a ridiculous amount of children. By the time the population did start to grow, the European colonization began and Small Pox did its worst.

As far as land ownership, Native people did think they owned the land. However they did not give it the value that Europeans thought it was worth. The groups were working between two alien exchange rates. Granted Europeans took advantage of that. But they did “pay” the Natives for their land in the beginning.

In regards to the South American empires, one of the largest was taken down due to 100-200 year drought. This was thought to occur the last millennia. Scientists suspect that colder weather in the Northern Hemisphere causes the droughts in the South.

A millennia has passed now, and temperatures are getting colder again. Severe drought will greatly test American border control and immigration policies. It will not doubt lead to unrest and warfare along the border states.

@Elaine,
“A new religion will have to arise that praises care in family building and enforces birth control a la China today. This is inevitable unless we have a future of Dark Age population control which is of course, disease, starvation, war and chaos.”

I’d like to nominate Druidry. An old religion, but one whose time has come around again.

(Word press is driving me nuts.) The situation in New France was more interesting than Latin America because there weren’t empires in the north for the Europeans to replace. So the system had to be built from scratch. Many Jesuit documents are online at http://puffin.creighton.edu/jesuit/relations/

I mention just in passing that Israel is required to spend 80% of its US military support funds on US armaments. So one could argue that military support for Israel is just another boondoggle for the MIC in the US. I’m sure there are other factors involved, but the greed of the US MIC is a primary one.

Now, pertainent to the topic, is the question of who is the favorite hottest-female character? 🙂 I say 7 of 9. Well, she almost wins with the Public, but loses out to commander T’Pol … which I never knew since I rarely watched Deep Space Nine (but saw every episode of all the other ST series). And that is pertainent since Seven of Nine, the Public’s second-most favorite of the hot women, is also the most spock-like of the females, intellectually and (un)emotionally.

ELAINE: I should have clarified it since I was not only around when it was cancelled, I know what people thought BACK THEN about Spock: the majority of the audience back then didn’t like Spock but Trekkies loved him, naturally! Big time. This represented a major cultural split. If you liked Sherlock Holmes due to his geeky characteristics, you would tend to like Spock.

That is, the analysis involved in figuring out situations also led Sherlock Holmes and Spock to be quite arrogant! As they well deserved. But people hate this sort of certainty, of course.

Ergo: these sorts of people are ‘unpopular’ yet we need them to save us! HAHAHA. Which makes it even worse for people who hate ‘smarty-pants’ and as anyone can see here, I was a classic ‘smarty-pants’ arrogant little tot in school, irritating even kindergarden teachers.

The second time I was sent to a principal and punished was in Texas when I told my school teacher, there was no such thing as an ‘elly-phant’ as she said in her deep Texan accent. I corrected her English. Fatal, in Texas!

In Tucson, the next year, in second grade, I corrected my teacher who came from the North when she said, ‘Robins come in the spring.’ I said, ‘No, they LEAVE in the spring. And furthermore, spring isn’t when it flowers, it is the beginning of the drought season. The flowers come in July, not April!’ She got really mad instead of shouting, ‘You are RIGHT!’ Nope. She got mad as hell.

HAHAHAHA. And this is the problem! People like to say whatever and not think for five minutes.

Regarding the USA printing of money, which many people bemoan as being excessive … as I see it, it has been judicious and necessary, and fairly close to just what has been needed to get the economy from sinking back into a depression. Here is a good source, showing, in particular, M3, which the government doesn’t publish any more allegedly because it doesn’t provide useful information (which I disagree, as do others) …

All the massive money printing has basically just compensated for the massive obliteration of the money supply caused by the housing crisis, derivatives crisis and economic crisis. And, to that extent, it will not be inflationary, it will merely be anti-depressionary.

But I agree with you Elaine on the fundamentally difficult problems with the economy. At the end of the day, with global free trade, the workers of the richest countries are going to have to have to acclimate to approaching the standard of living of living of the workers of the newly industrialized poorer nations, and vice versa! That is the only way production prices can be equalized and trade imbalances reduced. Unfortunately, that is difficult and painful for the rich Western countries, as the workers standard of living must decline. Though, it is exciting for the poorer countries, as their workers get richer and richer and experience great rises in their standard of living. Becoming more equal is difficult for those who have more than others. But free trade and capitalism act to drive equality of pay … by trade imbalances and FOREX reserve imbalances forcing such structural adjustments.

What is interesting is that social dynamics appear likely to couple with the economic dynamics to also force ever-increasing reductions of the wealth and income of the very wealth (the 1%), rather than just on the middle pay and lower pay workers. Which is a good thing. 🙂

There are NO ‘3M’ numbers. This was ELIMINATED just before the present huge inflation surge. Inflation first hit housing and other goodies but then transported itself magically to oil and food and necessities which have seen the dollar lose huge amounts of value.

Inflation isn’t a single force, it is a slippery dynamic systematic shape-changing creature that will leave one area and infiltrate into another. The way they fixed this was to LIE about inflation by removing food and fuel entirely from the calculations and doing really weird things to hide it from technological systems, that is, if technology improves, they pretend that this corrects basic inflation in commodities and materials and labor.

They fixed the labor part with free trade whereby any well-paid employees have lost their jobs to cheaper labor countries and thus, wage inflation vanished entirely. As has jobs and the livelihoods of millions and millions of first world laborers.

Well, it’s all about power politics isn’t it. The rich in the west sold out the workers share to increase their own. Why do we even entertain the notion that it is the WORKERS part that has to decline? Why not the rich people’s part? We know a few families in the US owns as much as the bottom 50 % put together.

But no, it is the few that have to get more and more, and the many that have to get less and less.

I found WilliamHBoston’s way of putting it very revealing: “At the end of the day, with global free trade, the workers of the richest countries are going to have to have to acclimate to approaching the standard of living of living of the workers of the newly industrialized poorer nations, and vice versa! That is the only way production prices can be equalized and trade imbalances reduced. Unfortunately, that is difficult and painful for the rich Western countries, as the workers standard of living must decline.”

Correct. The majority of people did not like Spock. The majority of Trekkies loved Spock. This is why Trekkies are a very small subset of people. The majority of that subset intesects with the very small subset of people that like Spock. Those two subsets have a very large intesection. The statement that the majority of people did not like Spock is true. It is also very different from the statement that the majority of Trekkies liked Spock.

One of the commentators with the long and pretentious name would not have done well in deductive logic in sixth grade. You can hide behind a name, but you can’t run from me.

Stick to shooting plutonium rockets at aliens, geniusboy. Sign your name on the side in case one of them likes the taste of your cooking. Maybe they will come back and ask you for more, or at least take you away to some plutonium loving paradise.

The graphs are very relevant to understanding the opinion given in the comment.

In particular, the M3 money supply is shown to the current date, as continued by the non-Fed sources (in this case SMG). The chart showing the growth of M3, or lack thereof, is important to the text of the comment.

That M3 is guesswork, alas. We used to have statistics backed by a mountain of information, all of which was blown away and called ‘useless’. The M3 numbers don’t tell the whole story in the first place, alas. It leaves out the dire effects of too much military spending overseas and huge foreign FOREX holdings.